[Part 1] Smart Home Project: Overview

Now I'm free... A month ago I left my job at an IT company based in Sofia, Bulgaria and now I have plenty of time to work on my side projects.

One of these projects is buried in the drawer named "SOMEDAY WHEN I'M FREE" and is my idea for a smart home.

This article will be a part of series of articles in which I will try to share with you my journey with this smart home idea. I hope that you will enjoy it and even try to build your own system!

Before I started working on this project I had two Sonoff Basic Switch and Touch which were installed in my office room, in the bathroom and in the bedroom. However, I couldn't control them by my own software application and had to rely on their proprietary mobile app. This is not a good idea when you want to install plenty of different switches, modules and sensors and have to use different apps and services just to control them.

Sonoff's Touch and Basic Switchc

So, you would ask me - what should I do? The answer is really easy but execution is kinda tricky if you have never worked with hardware and a soldering iron. But! Don't worry - there's a first time for everything! Just keep calm and YouTube the solution! 🤣

I spent quite some time researching how to flash the original firmware of the Sonoff's WiFi modules in order to install an open source solution which will give me the opportunity to control all of these smart modules with own software applications.

The solution is: Tasmota. I will quote a part from their GitHub's description:

Alternative firmware for ESP8266 based devices like iTeadSonoff with web, timers, 'Over The Air' (OTA) firmware updates and sensors support, allowing control under Serial, HTTP, MQTT and KNX, so as to be used on Smart Home Systems. Written for Arduino IDE and PlatformIO.

So, what Tasmota is doing is simply replacing the original firmware of the component with a customizable open source alternative that gives you a complate control over it.

Basically, it installs an http server which runs a basic panel for configuring and controlling the module as well as gives you opportunity to control it via REST API calls or MQTT messages.

The Tasmota Control Panel

What do you think? I think you will like the following articles more and more and even decide to build something by yourself! Don't be shy to share your tries and accomplishments! I will try to help as much as possible to everyone who contacts me either here or via email.

Stay tuned! The next article is coming soon! I will share my experience with flashing the Basic Switch and Touch with the Tasmota software as well as how to configure them! 😊